A true friend shows color
by VideoKam
Summary: Naruto is walking home until it is blown to pieces and he has no clue who did this, he wanders around asking to stay at some of his friends place at the academy but does not succeed. Until he finds Ino Yamanaka...
1. Chapter 1

It was about 8 p.m. and Naruto was walking home from Ichiraku Ramen, the blond haired boy was happy and full. He was almost to his apartment when he heard an explosion, "what was that" he said getting worried. When he turned the corner he was crushed almost instantly, for what he saw was his home in many different pieces.

Naruto scrambled to find who did this deed but alas hindered to find anyone. About 15 minutes later the anbu black ops showed up and Naruto explained everything, they in turn relayed this information to Tsunade and she said "we will find whoever did this Naruto" which didn't help him much because even IF they found the culprit it wouldn't change the fact that he was now homeless. "Who would do something like this, do the villagers hate me that much, or was it the akatsuki after him again?" These are some of the many questions that Naruto wondered about while he travelled aimlessly throughout Konaha.

Naruto would usually try to survive on his own but he lost everything in his apartment except for the clothes on his back and a little money in his frog wallet, so he went around asking his classmates if maybe he could stay with them even for just one night, most of them said they didn't have enough room while some of his friends' parents answered the door and looked at him with utter disgust. So after trying for hours he gave up and went to go sit on a bench near a street light, knowing that he would most likely sleep there he began to sulk, he had his head in between his legs until he heard someone say his name "Naruto?" He looked up to find Ino Yamanaka, a blonde Kunoichi who worked at the flower shop.

"What are you doing out here Naruto?" She asked with worry in her eye, "Someone blew up my apartment and no one would take me in." He said dryly. "Well maybe you just didn't ask the right gal" she said and began to smile. Naruto's eyes widened "Does that mean..." "Yup, you can stay with me." She could've sworn Naruto was about to jump up but he held in his excitement making Ino smile a bit. They began to walk to Ino's home when Naruto asks "so what were you doing out this late anyway?" "I was just admiring the flowers around our village and lost track of time, I started heading home and saw you on a bench looking sad so I had to see what was bothering you." She replied simply. "Not to be a nuisance but, where will I sleep?" "Well I would say you could sleep on the couch but it was recently broken, so if you're ok with it I can let you sleep on the futon, it's in my room so I hope you don't mind." Naruto had a slight blush at that but wasn't going to complain. "How did the couch get broken?" asked a confused Naruto. "After my dad comes home from a mission he just falls on the couch with all of his weight and goes to sleep, so after about a year of this the couch finally fell with him, so yeah." The two walked in silence until they reached the home of Ino, before she turned the nob to go inside she just realized something, how am I going to explain this to my dad. I come home late with a boy and say he's going to live with us for a while and he's sleeping in my room. Ino looked at Naruto and thought _"what's the worst that could happen"_


	2. Chapter 2

"What is that demon boy doing in my home Ino!" yelled Inoichi, making Ino a little angry because Naruto was not a demon. Ino turned to look at Naruto apologetically but he didn't seem phased by her father's previous comment. "Dad he has nowhere else to go, so if you kick him out than I'm leaving with him" said Ino with a stern look on her face. Inoichi mumbled "o..hkasatywithus" "What was that?" "I said ok he can stay with us, but you two better behave yourselves and Naruto, you better find a home soon got it!" "Yes sir I'll be good believe it!" said an enthusiastic Naruto. Ino looked at Naruto and looked quite pleased with herself.

In Ino's room

"Are you sure I have to sleep in here with you, I mean I could just move the futon out in the living room?" said an uncomfortable Naruto, but Ino just said "you can either sleep in here or you can get woken up by my father in the morning" making Naruto start thinking " _her dad doesn't like me so he might wake me up in the worst way possible, on the other hand if I sleep in Ino's room I wouldn't get any sleep because I would be too nervous."_ Seeing that Naruto was really thinking about the situation Ino says, "You either sleep in here or you don't sleep in my house at all"

" _Why does she want me to sleep in her room so bad?"_ Naruto thought as he began setting up his futon " _I mean sure I love the fact that she's giving me a place to stay but still"_ These thoughts filled Naruto's head before he drifted off to sleep.

"WAKE UP NARUTO WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" yelled an impatient Ino, "give me 5 more minutes" "You said that three times already!" "Come on I'm tired" no response " _I think she left me alone, wow that was easier than I thought"_ thought a satisfied Naruto until SPLASH! Ino dropped a bucket of water onto the asleep Naruto causing him to jump up in panic and scream "What the hell Ino!" "I told you to get up" said an amused Ino; Naruto just grunted and started looking for something, "Do you need something Naruto?" Ino said curiously, "Yeah where's my necklace?" Ino looked at him and remembered that he always had Tsunade's former necklace "It's in your pant pocket, I took the liberty of getting up early to wash your clothes cause I noticed that's the only pair of clothes you have." Ino said and smiled " _Why is she taking so good care of me, doesn't she know I have the kyuubi"_

"So Naruto is that necklace important to you or something?" yeah granny Tsunade gave it to me and it reminds me of my dream of becoming hokage." If you want to be hokage you have to pass the academy first." "I know I'm just not good at paying attention and studying" "Well…I could help you if you'd like" "We need to get to class first" said Naruto changing the subject.

After Class

"Unh, that was soooo boring" said a distraught Naruto "You were asleep the whole time" "Well my dream was boring." "Ok whatever, you said you couldn't pay attention but you didn't even try." Said Ino looking at her friend with a glare "Hey Ino" Ino looked at Naruto and saw the seriousness of his face and said "Yeah what is it?" "Why are you helping me so much, I mean I never talked to you much and I have the nine tails inside of me, I'm nothing but trouble." Said a grim Naruto. "Naruto look at me, I would help anyone who was in need ok and I consider you a friend." "But…" he was interrupted by Ino "No buts, you are Naruto Uzumaki, my friend. You are not the nine tails" Naruto just looked at the blonde with sky blue eyes and hugged her, "Thanks Ino" Ino returned the hug and said "That's what friends are for" they broke the hug "Now how about we go home and I teach you what you missed today sleepy head."


	3. Chapter 3

_HELLLOOO! So arigato (thank you)Shadow-Shinobi666 for your review, it helped me to realize I need to explain the events that have happened and I apologize because it's my first fic and I was just focused on NaruIno and just mentioned characters without thinking. So this chapter will be a lot of my Naruto world history so_ Tanoshinde moraetara, tanoshīdesu (I hope you enjoy) Also, Naruto and his classmates have their headband from passing the shadow clone jutsu test but have to finish the written/school part of becoming a ninja.

"Naruto lets go it's the last day before we graduate, you don't need to comb your hair it's always messy anyway!"

"Fine Ino geez"

Naruto zipped up his jacket and left with the other blonde of the leaf. It had been a week since Naruto moved into Ino's home, since then she still hasn't really got to know him all that much, but today was Friday so she was going to try her hardest to interrogate him this weekend. As Ino thought this she got a devious grin across her face making Naruto a bit nervous but they continued walking nonetheless.

Ding! The school bell rang releasing the students and Ino went to get Naruto who surprisingly wasn't asleep.

"Hey you paid attention this ti-"Ino was cut off by Naruto's head falling onto his desk " _I knew it"_ Thought Ino as she sighed. At least school is over, we're ninja now.

The two began walking home when Ino noticed that Naruto was looking around as if he was on the lookout for someone, Ino noticed this earlier but now it was evident that he was on his guard.

"Is something wrong Naruto"

"Wha- no why"

"Well you've been looking around so…"

Naruto sighed

"If you don't wanna tell me its fi-"she was cut off by Naruto

"Ok Ino I think I'm obligated to tell you more about me because you are helping me in my time of need and I can never repay you."

"Tell me what"

"Wait till we get to your place because this is serious"

Ino looked at Naruto almost with joy because she would know more about her friends past, but she looked at his seriousness and thought " _Maybe I'm not going to like what he has to say"_

"Ok Ino I'm going to tell you everything even the stuff you already know, ok"

She nods her head

"Ok so Mizuki-sensei told me if I take a secret scroll I'll gain more power so I did, this turn of events lead the 3rd Hokage to have a heart attack and die, I learned the multi shadow clone jutsu that night and became close with Iruka-sensei, he gave me my headband and we had ramen. Mizuki was put to death for theft and murder. At the 3rd Hokage's funeral a white haired man named Jiraiya approached me and said the old geezer sent for him to train me, the thought of getting stronger made me happy so I said yes. Jiraiya and I went to get the 5th Hokage Tsunade, I bet on her necklace that I could master the rasengan in a weeks' time. I won obviously. Then we fought orochimaru and I made a promise that I would become hokage and make everyone respect me and made a vow not to die until I did so. Afterward we started heading home and Jiraiya told me of an organization called the akatsuki that was very powerful and looking for me and that I should be on the lookout. Then it was all boring until my apartment was blown up, leading me to believe that-

"The akatsuki were the culprits, wow." said a mystified Ino "are you gonna talk this much everyday" said Ino jokingly. Naruto just smirked.

"So what about you Ino"

"Wait you didn't start at the beginning"

Naruto looked puzzled

"What about your parents?"

"Well that's easy, I never knew my parents"

Ino looked like she was about to cry when Naruto picked her chin up and said "hey don't cry, look I'm ok with it honest, because right now I'm happier than ever" the two hugged and told stories all night until they both ended up in their respected beds, Naruto in his Futon and Ino in her bed. Naruto looked around now with the feeling of relief from getting all that info off his chest, he began thinking on what squad he would be put on, he was hoping to be on Ino's team so that way he would know without a doubt she was safe. Ino was thinking similar to this but instead thought " _I hope I'm on Naruto's team so I can maybe get him to like me more than a friend."_ The two blondes thought about the distant future for a while until they both drifted to sleep.


End file.
